Jonathan Gold Gets Cheesy, Reveals the Worst Thing He Ever Ate

Jonathan Gold, the big cheese of the L.A. food scene, details his own obsession with fromage today for a cheese-centered mag called Culture. The Pulitzer winner recalls the day he fell in love with the stuff as a 24-year-old over Ken Frank’s cheese cart at La Toque and drops a great Godfather reference in musing, "When I lived in New York, I tended to spend about twice as much at Murray’s each year as I did at every supermarket combined. I experienced the thunderbolt when I first tasted Fantome chevre in Wisconsin." He also reveals that his seventeen-year-old daughter has posters of cheese in her room instead of Lil Wayne, while serving up mouthwatering gems like this: "I consider a properly runny Epoisses to be proof of a loving God." What else does Gold have tosay?

Off the subject of curds and cream, the cheese-heads ask Mr. Gold what’s the worst thing he’s ever eaten as a food critic. He looks back to an O.C. Vietnamese restaurant that gave him, "Something that appeared to be boiled rawhide in a sauce of vinegar and pureed, overcooked spleen." Apparently, it’s a specialty of the Lao that he hears can be off-the-hook when cookedright.

But we digress, as cheese is really the point here. If any of you are looking to play Secret Santa with J. Gold this year, just remember, there’s always gold-infused cheese!